Keep Hold of Your Rock Stars

Media release
20 March 2012

Keep Hold of Your Rock Stars

A recent survey by Robert Half suggests managers have every reason to be worried about losing top employees given the brighter economic outlook.

Over half (52%) of the 200 New Zealand CFOs and Financial Directors surveyed cited staff retention as a concern in 2012. 61% also recognised it is challenging to find skilled finance professionals.

The same survey found that 79% of CFOs and Financial Directors have confidence in New Zealand’s economic growth prospects for 2012.

Robert Half general manager Megan Alexander says the results highlight that staff retention is increasingly becoming a top priority for companies. “Optimism in the job market leads to opportunities for employees and you can guarantee they’ll be watching the job market closely,” she says.

Robert Half statistics show the average time it takes to fill a finance or accounting vacancy at management level is seven weeks, while staff level role takes an average of 5.7 weeks.

The survey gave some market insight on the incentives hiring managers are using in order to attract and retain staff. Traditional monetary perks including salary and bonuses remain the top option at 32%, while offering staff opportunities to up skill by offering subsidised training or education (24%) took out second place.

Health care or life benefits (16%) and flexible work hours or the opportunity to telecommute (16%) were also on offer. Other incentives included mentoring programmes, car allowance and loyalty leave.

Alexander suggests as that managers should ensure that monetary recognition and reward for top performers is in line with what the market is offering, but warns that is not where the efforts should stop.

“Staff turnover is expensive as well as disruptive, but there are some simple measures managers can take to improve staff satisfaction”, she says.

“Many issues boil down to problems with people, structure or process. It’s good for managers to regularly review each of these areas and be honest and transparent about what needs to change.

“Constant communication on what drives employees is important. Bosses should not assume that they know which incentives motivate their team or each individual.

“They should provide meaningful work that employees can excel at and feel proud of and recognise team members when they are producing good results. Even a simple thank you can go a long way.”

“With business confidence being high and skilled staff being hard to find, it’s a timely reminder to focus on retention and not just assume that top performers are content to stay put,” adds Alexander.

Ends

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